"Sve što smo imali, sve što smo bili, svelo se na uspomene". Osobne Pripovijesti i pisma prognanika iz istočne Slavonije

Author(s): Irena Plejić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 15/1992

Based on three personal narratives and three letters of refugees from war struck regions of Croatia, the author investigates how such accounts can be approached as ethnographic data, the structure and contents of these accounts reveal that the war and refugee experience have influenced the way the refugees see themselves and think about certain core values of their culture. The author brings some insightful observations about the war as a period of reversed order, about gradual transformation of the cosmopolitan attitude of the inhabitants of Vukovar, about photographs and other mementos saved from the family house, which is seen as an irreplaceable determinant of the identity of the refugees, and finally, about the iconography of the refugees' current living quartos.

"Takvoga bogatstva oni nisu vidjeli"

Author(s): Marina Škrabalo,Tea Trkulja / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 15/1992

Transcribed personal narratives of two refugees from central (a Serb from Banija, male, about 60 years old), and eastern Croatia (a Croat from eastern Slavonia, female, about 60 years old) are treated in this text as ethnographic data. The authors have arranged their accounts in contrastive pairs which relate their attitudes, notions and commentaries about the beginning of the war in Croatia, about encounters with different armies (Yugoslav national army, Croatian army, etc.), about the transformation of daily life in war situation, about the things which the refugees thought were important to take when leaving their homes and about their return.

105. brigada Hrvatske vojske iz Bjelovara na zapadno-slavonskom bojištu tijekom 1991. godine

Author(s): Željko Karaula / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 4/2019

At the beginning of October 1991, preparations began within the 105th Brigade of the Croatian Army from Bjelovar for the movement towards the West Slavonian battlefield, where the military pressure of the Yugoslav People’s Army and insurgent Serbs on the Croatian defense was strong. Parts of the brigade made an important contribution to the liberation of the first liberated place on the Novljan battlefield in the village of Bujavica, while the attack on the neighboring occupied town of Lovska was unsuccessful. After that, the 105th Brigade was engaged in Operation „Orkan-91“ within the Operational Group „Posavina“. According to the idea of that operation, the forces of the Operational Group „Posavina“ on the stretch Novska – Nova Gradiška should be joined, the Yugoslav People’s Army and the rebel Serbs in the area of Lipik and Pakrac should be cut off and the Bjelovar Operational Zone should be allowed to destroy them. However, despite some successful moves and the liberation of parts of the Croatian territory occupied (the village of Bair) within the 105th Brigade, there were significant losses in manpower (battle for the Triangle), which significantly in the moral sense shook the brigade. Although the brigade was ready to keep its positions, it was withdrawn to Bjelovar at the beginning of November 1991, by order of the Bjelovar Operational Zone. The work on the basis of the initiated project of making a scientific monograph of the 105th Brigade, archival sources, literature and oral history provides basic information about the war journey of members of the 105th Brigade who engaged and fought in the area.

1941. GODINA U JUGOSLOVENSKOJ ISTORIOGRAFIJI

Author(s): Petar Kačavenda / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 1+2/1991

Pedeset godina od početka oružane oslobodilačke borbe naroda Jugoslavije u Drugom svetskom ratu, prilika je da se i najkraćim osvrtom nešto kaže о jugoslovenskoj istoriografiji 1941. godine. Ova prelomna godina, ispunjena mnoštvom krupnih događaja i zbivanja sudbonosnih za jugoslovenske narode i evropsku i svetsku zajednicu u celini, zaokupljala je i zaokuplja pažnju i interesovanje i nakon 50 godina, ne samo istoričara, već i mnogih drugih stvaralaca, koji svojim delima daju doprinos naučnom osvetljavanju istorijske stvarnosti toga vremena. Sve to rezultira da se svestranije i objektivnije vrednuju društveno-politički odnosi i snage u Drugom svetskom ratu, tom najkrvavijem sukobu u istoriji Ijudskog drustva i Ijudske zajednice. Nekoliko puta, u okviru podsećanja na strahote Drugog svetskog rata, sumirani su i rezultati istorijske nauke u izučavanju 1941. godine u svetskim razmerama a u okviru toga i rezultati jugoslovenske istoriografije.

A Balkan Trilogy

Author(s): John K. Cox / Language(s): English / Issue: 03/2006

The review of: 1) Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789-1989: From the Ottomans to Milošević by Tom Gallagher. London: Routledge, 2001. pp. xvi + 314. Maps, index, bibliography, notes. Hardcover. 2) The Balkans after the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy by Tom Gallagher. London: Routledge, 2003. pp. 256. Index, bibliography, notes. Hardcover. 3) The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace by Tom Gallagher. London: Routledge, 2005. pp. xv + 232. Maps, index, bibliography, notes. Hardcover.

A Dangerous Nexus? History, Ideology and the Structure of the Contemporary Chetnik Movement

Author(s): Nejra Veljan,Maida Ćehajić / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

During the Yugoslav era (1945–1992), the Serb ethno-nationalist Chetnik movement and its motivating ideology were unambiguously condemned in public discourse. This followed the defeat of foreign occupiers, including Italian fascists and German Nazis, who had been aided by collaborationists within Ustasha (Croat ethno-nationalist and fascist) and Chetnik ranks. Thus, in the period after World War Two, public accusations of Chetnik membership were levelled pejoratively in Yugoslavia, and it was clear: to be a Chetnik was to be a traitor. Many former members of Chetnik detachments tried to conceal or minimize their participation in the movement, but some continued fostering Chetnik ideals in the privacy of their homes, even as a shared Partisan/Yugoslav identity was publicly nourished.

A Date for Belgrade? Conditionality, German leadership and Serbia’s path to the EU

Author(s): Bodo Weber / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2013

In the space of less than a year, relations between the EU and Serbia’s new government have undergone a remarkable transformation. The government’s intentions appeared suspect, or at least uncertain, to most foreign observers. Yet in the end the concessions and compromises offered by Belgrade went far beyond what Brussels ever got out of the Tadić government over four years of a supposedly close partnership. The government has not only stayed the course of EU integration, but has also taken bold steps and taken the EU process more seriously than its predecessor. The agreements Belgrade signed in Brussels in April and May this year will, if implemented, lead to the integration of the Serb enclaves in north Kosovo into the Republic of Kosovo and the dismantling of any institutions of the state of Serbia on Kosovo’s soil.

A deltiology of memory

Author(s): Kinga Anna Gajda / Language(s): English / Issue: 04 (42)/2020

Review of: Kinga Anna Gajda - The Geopolitics of Memory. A Journey to Bosnia. By: James Riding. Publisher: Ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, 2019

A Divided Past for a Divided Future!? The 1992-1995 War in the Current History Textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Melisa Forić Plasto / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2020

The paper problematises the issue of the current BiH history textbooks about the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a theme that has been reintroduced to the BiH curricula after 18 years. Different approaches in interpretation of the war, as well as in representation of war crimes and mass suffering, continues to deepen divisions among school children as well.

A female voice from Sarajevo

Author(s): Krzysztof Czyżewski / Language(s): English / Issue: 05 (48)/2021

Some time ago, when the bloody Balkan war was still raging in Sarajevo, poet Izet Sarajlić, editor Čedo Kisić and professor Zdravko Grebo were explaining their world to me. None of them is alive anymore. Neither is Isak Samokovlija, a prominent Bosnian Jewish writer, whose stories took me to the most hidden corners of Sarajevo’s historical centre, Baščaršija, as well as the Grbavica and Bentbaša districts. I was listening to the stories of the writers and artists who had left Sarajevo, but who were still under its influence. They included Dževad Karahazan in Graz, Josip Osti in Ljubljana, Miljenko Jergović in Zagreb, and Nino Žalica in Amsterdam…

A positive hero for everyone? The memorialization of Srđan Aleksić in post-Yugoslav countries

Author(s): Nicolas Moll / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Despite various attempts, the memory of persons who helped and rescued endangered persons “from the other side” during the breakup wars of Yugoslavia is rarely publicly acknowledged. There is, nevertheless, one exception: the case of Srđan Aleksić, a young Bosnian Serb who was killed while saving a Muslim acquaintance in Trebinje in January 1993. Since2007, Srđan Aleksić has not only become publicly known, but his memory is also widely positively connoted in different countries and by groups ofvarious political and ethnic backgrounds in the post-Yugoslav space. This article analyzes the emergence of this memory and the narratives around it, how fragile or strong the consensus which has emerged around his memory is, and what this memorialization indicates about the current memory culture in post-Yugoslav countries and its evolutions.

A Review of One Chapter: An Example of Irresponsible Self-Indulgence

Author(s): Sabrina Petra Ramet / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2007

Robert M. Hayden has written a very strange book review. In my book, Thinking about Yugoslavia, I discuss 131 books, among other things noting differences in factual accounts, interpretations, and moral and empirical frameworks. In his review of my book, Professor Hayden refers to only 7 of the books I discuss and relies on outright falsifications of my views to advance his argument. In fact, nowhere in his review does he demonstrate that any of the works I praise in my book do in fact “violate the principles of social science inquiry,” as he alleges. [...]

A Rope Supports a Man Who Is Hanged-NATO Air Strikes and the End of Bosnian Resistance

Author(s): Attila Hoare / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/1998

The Dayton settlement of November 1995 marked the end of not one but two struggles over the former Yugoslavia. The first was a struggle of armies: between the armies of the republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina on the one hand, fighting for national survival and state independence, and the military forces controlled or organized by Serbia on the other, fighting to crush these republics and dismember them territorially. Although Serbia began the war in 1991 with an apparently overwhelming military superiority over its victims, on account of its control of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and its much greater strategic and psychological preparedness, by late 1991 the Croatians, followed by the Bosnians by mid-1994, had built up armies capable of driving its forces back. By the time of the final cease-fire in October 1995, Serbian forces west of the Brcko corridor were in a state of near-complete collapse. [...]

Agresija na BiH – Negacija ZAVNOBiH-a

Author(s): Bećir Macić / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 37/2007

U svom prilogu autor prikazuje ciljeve, metode i rezultate agresije velikosrpskog i velikohrvatskog nacionalizma u odnosu na državno-pravni identitet i međunarodno-pravni subjektivitet Bosne i Hercegovine, te navodi koje su osobine naše državnosti bile glavni cilj rušenja i destrukcije od strane navedenih agresora. Autor identificira agresora kao veliksrpski i velikohrvatski nacionalizam, a njihov zajednički cilj kao uništavanje države Bosne i Hercegovine i u konačnom njeno uključenje u druge države.

Alija izetbegović, vrhovni komandant oružanih snaga Republike Bosne i Hercegovine

Author(s): Fikret Muslimović / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 50/2020

(Lecture held on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the birth of Alija Izetbegović, August 5th 2020). This is the integral text of the lecture in which the author focused on the role of Alija Izetbegović as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bosnia during the aggression and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992 – 1995). In doing so he paid special attention to the circumstances in which he acted as the head of the civilian command in this imposed war. He clarified the formal side and the real authority that Izetbegović wielded as the supreme commander, his scope of work, powers and responsibilities, as well as his direct activities in the ranks of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a direct associate of Alija Izetbegović during the war, the author pointed out his basic character traits – a highly moral and responsible man caught in the chaos of war. He tried to motivate others with his influence, to embolden all subjects of society and the state to direct their attention and to act in favor of strengthening the combat efficiency of the Armed forces.

AMERIČKA JAVNOST I 27. MART 1941. U JUGOSLAVIJI

Author(s): Radoje Nenadović / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 2/1987

The goal of this study is to point out how much was the press and public opinion in the United States interested for the events which took place in the spring of 1941. in Yugoslavia, actually to describe how much sensation have those events - the joining of Yugoslavia with the Tripartite Alliance and the coup d’etat of March 27. - produced in the United States. The articles and documents used in this paper enabled comparison of the American foreign policy with the mood of their public opinion. The titles in American newspapers from that time indicate the growth of interest for the political events in Yugoslavia. American pressing the meaning of a historical source has not been used to the present time in exploring these events. The newspaper articles analysed in this work provide a clear image of the American political strategy in the Balkans, together with a thorough insight in their striving to induce and support the resistance against the Nazi penetration into South-east Europe, and particularly in Yugoslavia. In the need to understand better the writing of the American press about the changes in Yugoslavia, from the moment of joining the Axis to the onset of the April war, this paper includes official Diplomatic papers issued by the U.S. Government Printing Office, considering more important events which occurred immediately before the „March revolution”. As from the beginning of the year 1941., and particularly from the middle of February, American press became more detailed in dealing with the political events in Yugoslavia. American newspapers greeted the coup d’etat of March 27. with enthusiasm, connecting it primarily to the war like and freedom spirited traditions of the Serbian people. Although there were some articles in the American newspapers in which the relations between Yugoslavia and the United States were observed from the Isolationist point of view,the greater part of newspaper material encircled in this work, testifies about a wide support of the American public opinion to the resistance of Yugoslav people against the Nazi aggression. The common attitude of the American public opinion was, in the majority of cases, identical with the official policy of the U.S. government towards Yugoslavia.

An Analysis of The Contents of History Textbooks in Serbia Regarding the Wars in the Former Yugoslavia in the Light of the Facts Established Before the ICTY

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2015

Analiza dugotrajnosti kaznenih postupaka za ratne zločine vođenih na sudovima u RH

Author(s): Nikolina Židek / Language(s): Croatian / Publication Year: 0

Predmet ove analize kazneni su postupci za ratne zločine, vođeni na sudovima u Republici Hrvatskoj od 90-ih godina do danas, u skladu s dostupnom dokumentacijom, radi dobivanja podataka o trajanju kaznenih postupaka u spomenutim predmetima kako bi se utvrdile prosječne vrijednosti, a s njima i učinkovitost sudstva u postupcima za ratne zločine. Podaci su prikupljeni pregledom pravomoćnih presuda, ali i pregledom dokumentacije u predmetima koji su još u tijeku, objavljene na web-stranicama Centra za mir, nenasilje i ljudska prava (http://www.centar-za-mir.hr/), uz provjeru pojedinih slučajeva uvidom u popis Državnog odvjetništva Republike Hrvatske od ožujka 2013. godine1 . U nekim slučajevima konzultirali smo presude na web-stranicama Vrhovnog suda RH i dobili podatke iz novinskih članaka, objavljenih na internetu, kojima su popraćena neka od suđenja. Dostupni podaci sigurno su dostatni za analizu trendova u pojedinim razdobljima i predstavljaju reprezentativan uzorak, ali zbog nedostataka cjelovite dokumentacije i javno objavljenih podataka o svim sudskim postupcima za ratne zločine, neophodno je naglasiti da se u prikazu podataka ne govori o ukupnim i konačnim brojkama.

Analiza zakonske i sudske politike kažnjavanja počinitelja kaznenih djela ratnih zločina

Author(s): Marko Sjekavica,Jelena Đokić Jović,Maja Kovačević Bošković / Language(s): Croatian / Publication Year: 0

Sažeto rečeno, svrha kaznenih sankcija sastoji se od posebne i opće prevencije te od retribucije/kažnjavanja društva počinitelja kaznenih djela. U suvremenim pravnim porecima zapadnog tipa, težište se pomaknulo na preventivni element kaznenog sankcioniranja radi odvraćanja od činjenja budućih kaznenih djela i s težnjom resocijalizacije počinitelja, iako osuda i kazna ostaju sastavni dio izricanja kaznenih sankcija.

ANDRIĆISM: An Aesthetics for Genocide

Author(s): Rusmir Mahmutćehajić / Language(s): English / Issue: 04/2013

Andrić’s fiction is closely identified with Bosnia and often taken for a faithful reflection of that country’s culture, social relations, and tragic history. Rather than reflecting Bosnian pluralism, however, his oeuvre undermines its very metaphysical underpinnings, in part because his works are so firmly rooted in the European experience of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the perspective of a dominant modernity, certain cultures and peoples came to be presented as un-European, Oriental, and essentially foreign. Bosnia, which had always been a religiously plural society, now became one where ideological models excluded its Muslim inhabitants. In line with longstanding European practice, Andrić drew an image of the Bosnian Muslim as Turk and the Turk as Bosnian Muslim, converting the real content of Bosnian society into a plastic material for the ideologues of homogenous societies to use in modelling external and internal enemies that were essentially identical. This process required as its precondition the destruction of that enemy through a process described as the social and cultural liberation of the Christian subject. Over time, this exclusion took on forms now termed genocide. In creating this image, Andrić deployed narrative techniques whose function may fairly be characterized as the aesthetic dissimulation of our ethical responsibilities towards the other and the different. Such elements from his oeuvre have been used in the nationalist ideologies anti-Muslimism serves as a building block. In this paper, certain aspects of the ideological reading and interpretation of Andrić’s oeuvre are presented.